IF you’re looking for a big rave up with your mates in a beautiful London location to some stand-out tunes spun by some of the world’s best DJs, then look no further.

That’s because Kaleidoscope Festival, which ran over a sunny Saturday last weekend at Alexandra Palace, has all of that in spades.

However, if you’re looking for cutting edge new music alongside some oldies but goodies, then perhaps move along.

The dance stage was outstanding, with each DJ building on the momentum and enthusiasm created by the earlier sets. DJ Yoda was a knockout – who would have thought the 1980s tv classic Night Rider theme tune could be such a crowd pleaser (and also show the average age of the revellers) – while Zero 7 got us all whipped into a frenzy of dancing delight.

I reluctantly left the dance stage between the two DJ sets mentioned to catch some of Charlotte Church’s Pop Dungeon performance – having been cajoled by friends – and while some in the group warmed to her, the overall response was lukewarm.

I couldn’t help but feel she was a glorified karaoke singer and wondered what other options she had other than covering other artists songs as she has no back catalogue of her own. She wasn’t bad, but badly mangled some well-loved family favourites… and some not so family friendly favourites.

However I couldn’t spend all day glued to the top of the hill, and later on did venture back to the beautiful main stage, set against the base of the sloping hill and the sun going down on the performers – just in time for David Rodigan’s crowd pleasing set that saw families across the field grooving with their kids. One question though: if he’s a DJ, why does he have his own DJ spinning the records? Baffled.

The Happy Mondays also get a mention.

I confess: I don’t really know their stuff, and unless you’re a devout Mondays maniac you’re probably in the same boat. But they gave a good show and got the early-ish crowd going, along with Bez – their evergreen dancer/mate/celeb Big Brother winner – who showed us all he still knows how to do the Mancunian monkey dance.

Overall a good day out. Well-run smooth queues for bars, food and toilets, and no aggro anywhere.